# theft

Pronunciation: say "THEFT" /θɛft/

## Noun

1. The act of stealing property that belongs to someone else.
   - Simple: The act of stealing things that belong to other people.
   - _Car theft in the neighborhood fell after the city installed brighter streetlights._
   - _She was charged with theft after security found the unpaid jewelry in her bag._

## Origin

From Middle English theft, thefte, from Old English þīefþ, from Proto-West Germanic *þiubiþu and Proto-Germanic *þiubiþō, built on *þeubaz ("thief"); it is equivalent to thief or thieve plus the noun-forming suffix -t. It is related to Old Frisian thiuvethe, dialectal Dutch diefte, obsolete German Diebde and Icelandic þýfð, all meaning "theft".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/theft (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).